Farewell to the Sisters of Mercy

THISâ€Ë†HOLYâ€Ë†WEEKâ€Ë†is a historic one in Tuam, for two reasons. Saturday is the 400th anniversary of the signing of the royal charter which gave the town its borough status. And this is the last week that the Mercy Sisters will attend the Holy Week ceremonies from their convent on the Dublin Road. After Easter they move to join colleagues from other convents in a new retirement house in Taylorâ€â„¢s Hill, Galway. It is hard to under-estimate the impact the Mercy Sisters have had, not just on the town of Tuam and its hinterland but on the West of Ireland. From the tiny acorn of the small group which came here from Carlow 170 years ago, five years after the establishment of The Tuamâ€Ë†Herald, at the invitation of Archbishop John MacHale, sprang a mighty oak whose branches have sheltered good works in this region, this country and as far away as San Diego, California, Kenya, Nigeria and Peru. Even in this time of renewed austerity, it is impossible for anyone who has not experienced grinding, long-term poverty at first hand even to imagine the condition of the majority of the people living in Tuam in the 1840s. Whole families lived in tumbledown cabins, roofed with leaking thatch. They were dressed in rags, and such was the rate of infant mortality that children were often not named until they had reached the age of two, and had demonstrated some likelihood of survival. Into this dreadful environment came the ladies of the convent. They were not known as the Sisters of Mercy for nothing. They knew that spiritual lectures and prayers count for little among people who are groaning with the pangs of hunger. Their visits brought bread, butter, tea, sugar, milk, blankets and turf as well as medals and scapulars. At their convent they supplied meals of hot porridge. There is no doubt that they saved many from an early death. It was not for several years that the Mercy Sisters began what they are best known for today â€â€ education. But their teaching ministry flourished in an extraordinary way, and from the schools in Tuam grew foundations in Claremorris, Louisburgh, Tourmakeady, Glenamaddy â€â€ and Tallaght. These are all now run by lay staff, but the ethos of the Mercy Order still permeates school policies in a very positive way. While in Tuam the sisters are mainly identified with education, it must not be forgotten that the Mercy mission was continued and amplified in modern times by the opening of the Social Services Centre in 1972. Just as the poor and underprivileged were materially assisted by the women of the 1840s and beyond, so thousands of people in need of help and information have found a haven of support in the buildings on Dublin Road. And in place of the hot porridge of the early years, the Meals on Wheels service provides a three-course meal in their home to people who might otherwise not be able to nourish themselves. Underpinning all of this was the sistersâ€â„¢ commitment to the spiritual. Theirs was not a narrow vision of the immaterial â€â€ they recognised the importance of culture and recreation, and their musical legacy lives on in many forms, from the collaborative annual opera staged by the Mercy girls and the St Jarlathâ€â„¢s boys, to the international success of Julie Feeney. While not all of the sisters are leaving Tuam for their new retirement home in Galway â€â€ some will remain in private dwellings in Tuam â€â€ the convent will no longer be the core. In bidding farewell to these women, spiritual descendents of the â€Å“Blessed Ladiesâ€Â who comforted the sick and dying, and educated the young at a time of great deprivation and hardship, we salute a tradition that lives on and honour a legacy that will endure.